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Honduras The Development of an Independent Nation, 1838-99
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Figure 2. Honduras in Its Central American Setting, 1993
For Honduras, the period of federation had been
disastrous.
Local rivalries and ideological disputes had produced
political
chaos and disrupted the economy. The British had taken
advantage of
the chaotic condition to reestablish their control over
the Islas
de la Bahía. As a result, Honduras wasted little time in
formally
seceding from the federation once it was free to do so.
Independence was declared on November 15, 1838, and in
January
1839, an independent constitution was formally adopted.
Morazán
then ruled only El Salvador, and in 1839 his forces there
were
attacked by a Honduran army commanded by General Francisco
Ferrera.
Ferrera was defeated but returned to attack again in the
summer,
only to suffer another defeat. The following year, Morazán
himself
was overthrown, and two years later he was shot in Costa
Rica
during a final, futile attempt to restore the United
Provinces of
Central America.
For Honduras, the first decades of independence were
neither
peaceful nor prosperous. The country's political turmoil
attracted
the ambitions of individuals and nations within and
outside of
Central America. Even geography contributed to its
misfortunes.
Alone among the Central American republics, Honduras had a
border
with the three potential rivals for regional
hegemony--Guatemala,
El Salvador, and Nicaragua
(see
fig. 2). This situation
was
exacerbated by the political division throughout the
isthmus
between liberals and conservatives. Any liberal or
conservative
regime saw a government of the opposite ideology on its
borders as
a potential threat. In addition, exiled opposition figures
tended
to gather in states whose governments shared their
political
affiliation and to use these states as launching pads for
efforts
to topple their own governments. For the remainder of the
century,
Honduras's neighbors would constantly interfere in its
internal
politics.
After the fifteen-month interim presidency of Francisco
Zelaya
Ayes (1839-40), conservative General Ferrera became
independent
Honduras's first elected president. Ferrera's two-year
term (1841-
42) was followed by a five-year period in which he
alternately
named himself president or allowed the congress to name an
interim
president while he maintained control of the country by
holding the
post then known as minister of war. Ferrera's last notable
act was
the unsuccessful attempt to depose the liberal Morazán as
president
of El Salvador. In 1847 Ferrera allowed
fellow-conservative Juan
Lindo Zelaya to assume the presidency. Under Lindo's
presidency, a
new constitution was adopted in 1848, and some effort was
made to
promote education, but any effort to make substantial
improvements
in the country's situation was doomed by continuing
turmoil.
During Lindo's presidency (1847-52), the British began
pressuring Honduras for the payment of debts and other
claims. In
1849 a British naval force briefly occupied the port of
Trujillo,
destroying property and extorting 1,200 pesos from the
local
government. The following year, Lindo's own vice president
revolted
and was prevented from seizing power only through the
military
intervention of El Salvador and Nicaragua. All this
turmoil may
help to explain why Lindo refused an additional
presidential term
and instead turned over power in 1852 to the opposition
liberals,
headed by Trinidad Cabañas (1852-55). Three years later,
the
conservative government of Guatemala invaded Honduras and
ousted
Cabañas, installing in his place the conservative leader,
Santos
Guardiola.
The fighting between liberals and conservatives was
temporarily
set aside because of the 1855 appearance in Central
America of an
American soldier of fortune, William Walker, who
established
himself as president of Nicaragua in 1856. Cabañas briefly
considered seeking Walker's aid in attempting to return to
power.
Instead, armies from all the countries of Central America
joined to
oppose Walker, who was forced to abandon Nicaragua in 1857
and
return to the United States.
In 1859 the British agreed to a treaty that recognized
Honduran
sovereignty over the Islas de la Bahía. Some of the
British
settlers in the area objected to this transfer and
appealed to
Walker for help. Walker evidently thought that his return
to
Central America would be welcomed by the Honduran
liberals, who
were once again trying to oust Guardiola. Walker landed on
the
Honduran coast in 1860 but found little support and
encountered
determined opposition from both the Hondurans and the
British. He
surrendered to the British, who promptly handed him over
to
Honduran authorities. A few days later in 1860, he died in
front of
a Honduran firing squad.
The return of the Islas de la Bahía and the death of
Walker
ended the immediate threat to Honduran territorial
integrity, but
other Central American nations continued to be involved in
Honduran
internal affairs. Guardiola was assassinated by his own
honor guard
in 1862, and the following decade witnessed the presidency
change
hands almost twenty times. General José María Medina
served as
president or dictator eleven times during that period, but
Guatemalan intervention in 1876 drove him and his
conservative
supporters from power.
From 1876 until 1882, liberal president Marco Aurelio
Soto
governed Honduras with the support of Guatemalan strongman
General
Justo Rufino Barrios. Soto succeeded not only in restoring
order
but also in implementing some basic reforms in finance,
education,
and public administration. But in 1883, he too fell into
disfavor
with Barrios and was forced to resign. His successor,
General Luis
Borgrán, survived in office until 1891 when General
Poinciana Leiva
(who had ruled briefly three times from 1873-76) was
returned to
power in a manipulated election. Although a liberal, Leiva
tried to
rule as an absolute dictator, dissolving the fledgling
Liberal
Party of Honduras (Partido Liberal de Honduras--PLH) and
deporting
its leaders. The result was another round of civil
conflict from
which the reconstituted PLH ultimately emerged victorious.
The PLH
was led by Policarpo Bonilla, with the support of
Nicaragua's
liberal dictator, José Santos Zelaya.
When Bonilla assumed power in 1894, he began to restore
a
limited degree of order to the Honduran political scene.
Another
constitution was promulgated in 1895, and Bonilla was
elected to a
four-year term. Bonilla's administration revised civil
codes,
improved communications, and began an effort to resolve
the long-
standing boundary dispute with Nicaragua. Bonilla also
ensured that
in 1899, at the end of his term, he would be succeeded by
his
military commander, General Terencio Sierra.
The combined impact of civil strife and foreign
interventions
had doomed Honduras to a position of relative economic and
social
backwardness throughout the nineteenth century. The
country had
remained overwhelmingly rural; Tegucigalpa, Comayagua, and
San
Pedro Sula were the only towns of any size. In the early
1850s, the
total population was estimated at 350,000, the
overwhelming
majority of whom were mestizos. By 1914 the population had
grown to
only 562,000.
Opportunities for education and culture were limited at
best.
Mid-nineteenth century records indicate that Honduras had
no
libraries and no regularly published newspapers. Two
universities
were maintained, although their quality was questionable.
By the
1870s, only 275 schools, having approximately 9,000
pupils, existed
in the entire country. In 1873-74, the government budgeted
only the
equivalent of US$720 for education, a sum designated for
the
national university.
Throughout the nineteenth century, Hondurans looked to
mining as
a means of improving their economic position. The mining
industry
had fallen into severe neglect in the first decades of the
century,
however. Many mines had been abandoned and flooded. During
the
years following independence, efforts to revive the
industry were
generally frustrating for both domestic and foreign
entrepreneurs.
Effort after effort was abandoned because of civil
disturbances,
lack of transportation, and poor health conditions.
Mining was revived somewhat in the 1880s. A key factor
in this
revival was the activity of the New York and Honduras
Rosario
Mining Company (NYHRMC), which had expanded rapidly and
had become
a major economic and political power within Honduras.
Owing in part
to the company's efforts, the Honduran government had
allowed
foreign mining companies to operate in Honduras with a
minimum of
restrictions and a virtual exemption from taxes. By 1889
the
company was annually shipping bullion with a value of over
US$700,000 to the United States. Profits from this
operation were
extremely high; the company's dividends for the first half
of 1889
totaled US$150,000.
The NYHRMC's success attracted other companies to
Honduras, and
gold and silver exports became the principal source of
foreign
exchange for the rest of the century. The NYHRMC's success
stood
alone, however; most of the nearly 100 other companies
were total
failures. The Yuscarán Mining and Milling Company sold
over US$5
million in stock but failed to begin effective production.
By the
end of the nineteenth century, the brief mining boom was
in
decline, although the NYHRMC would remain a major factor
in the
Honduran economy until the mid-twentieth century.
Although mining had provided foreign exchange, the vast
majority
of Hondurans gained their livelihoods from agriculture,
usually on
a subsistence level. Periodic efforts were made to develop
agricultural exports, but they met with little success.
Some
tobacco, cattle, and hides were exported, mostly to
neighboring
countries. The recurring civil conflicts and the resultant
confiscation of stock by various military commanders,
however, put
a damper on efforts to develop the cattle industry and
contributed
to its rather backward status. Some bananas and other
fruits were
exported from the Islas de la Bahía, much of this trade
going to
New Orleans, but the volume was small and the benefit for
the rest
of the nation almost imperceptible.
Data as of December 1993
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